At his trial, the court heard how Evans owned property in Swansea, a £2m villa in Marbella and had bank accounts in Latvia, Antigua, Switzerland, Dominica and the UK.

Evans was released from jail on a temporary licence to a Swansea address in August 2011 but failed to return to prison.

Evans, a former Welsh Young Businessman of the Year, had previously given the authorities the slip while waiting to stand trial for fraud.

Days before he was to face justice for swindling 115 investors out of their savings in a £900,000 ostrich farm scam based in Swansea, he fled to Spain.

While trying to evade capture for the Ostrich farm confidence trick, he went on to lead the international gang which smuggled at least £3m-worth of drugs into Britain.

Evans turned to crime when his once-successful double-glazing firm based in Neath collapsed.

Officials said investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) alerted Interpol that Evans was in South Africa. That resulted in intelligence-led surveillance operations being conducted by the South African Police Service.

These operations led to Evans being tracked down to the housing complex where officers swooped as he was getting out of his car.

The NCA listed Evans on the most wanted section of its website.

The article read: “Between 1999 and 2001 Evans led an organised crime group supplying cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy.

“The proceeds were converted into foreign currency and transported to Holland to fund drug consignments.”

The agency said Evans had been known to use the aliases Martin Roydon Evans, Martin Wayne Evans, Anthony Hall and Paul Kelly.

Hank Cole, head of international operations for the NCA, said: “The exceptional level of collaboration and intelligence sharing with the South African Police Service led to the capture of Evans.

“This arrest shows the NCA and its partners will pursue fugitives wherever they are in the world. They can run but they can’t hide. We have the capability to track them down and bring them to justice.”

General Riah Phiyega, South Africa National Police Commissioner, added: “Both the Crime Intelligence and Interpol teams worked tirelessly to honour the request of our British counterparts and we applaud them for this.”

British High Commissioner to South Africa Judith Macgregor said the arrest was testimony to the “close working relationship between the UK and South Africa” on security issues including tackling drug trafficking, organised and fiscal crime.

Tracking down Evans was a global operation - given his previous links to the United States, the Netherlands and the Caribbean.

As part of Operation Zygos in 2012, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said it believed the disgraced businessman was among a group of British fugitives hiding in Cyprus.

Lord Ashcroft, founder and Chair of Crimestoppers, said the organisation was “extremely relieved” to hear of Evans’ arrest

He added: “There are now eight individuals remaining (in the Operation Zygos probe), thought to be evading justice overseas and I have every confidence we will succeed in finding them”.

Evans will appear at Pretoria Regional Court on Monday for an extradition hearing.